User:Lecen/Paraguayan War

Paraguayan War

Background

Territorial disputes

A map showing Uruguay and Paraguay in the center with Bolivia and Brazil to the north and Argentina to the south; cross-hatching indicates that the western half of Paraguay was claimed by Bolivia, the northern reaches of Argentina were disputed by Paraguay, and areas of southern Brazil were claimed by both Argentina and Paraguay
The Platine region in 1864. The shaded areas are disputed territories.

Since their independence from Portugal and Spain in the early 19th Century, the Empire of Brazil and the Spanish-American countries of South America were troubled by territorial disputes. All nations in the region had lingering boundary conflicts with multiple neighbors. Most had overlapping claims to same territories. These issues were questions inherited from their former metropoles, which, despite several attempts, were never able to resolve them satisfactorily. Signed by Portugal and Spain in 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was proved ineffective in the following centuries as both colonial powers expanded their frontiers in South America and elsewhere. The outdated boundary lines did not represent actual occupation of lands by Portuguese and Spanish.[1]

By the early 1700s, the Treaty of Tordesillas was deemed all but redundant and it was clear to both parties that a newer one had to be drawn based on realistic and feasible boundaries. In 1750, the Treaty of Madrid separated the Portuguese and Spanish areas of South America in lines that are mostly consisted to present-day boundaries. Neither Portugal nor Spain were satisfied with the results, and new treaties were signed in the following decades that either established new territorial lines or repealed them. The final accord signed by both powers, the Treaty of Badajoz (1801), reaffirmed the validity of the previous Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777), which had derived from the older Treaty of Madrid.[1]

The territorial disputes became worse when the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata collapsed in the early 1810s, leading to the rise of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay. "Imperial Spain bequeathed to the emancipated Spanish-American nations not only her own frontier disputes with Portuguese Brazil," says historian Perlham Horton Box, "but problems which had not disturbed her, relating to the exact boundaries of her own viceroyalties, captaincies general, audiencias and provinces."[2] Once separated, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia quarreled over lands that were mostly uncharted and unknown. They were either scarcely populated or settled by indigenous tribes that answered to no parties.[3][4] In the case of Paraguay with her neighbor Brazil, the problem was to define whether the Apa or Branco rivers represented their actual boundary, a persistent issue that also confused Spain and Portugal in the late 18th Century. The region between both rivers was depopulated, except for some tribes that roamed the area attacking nearer Brazilian and Paraguayan settlements.[5][6]

Increasing hostilities

Paraguayan offensive

Attack on Mato Grosso

Occupation of Corrientes

Invasion of Rio Grande do Sul

Allied counter-offensive

Battle of Riachuelo

Siege of Uruguayana

Invasion of Paraguay

Stalemate

Second allied offensive

Aftermath

References

  1. ^ a b Viana 1994, p. 467.
  2. ^ Box 1967, p. 54.
  3. ^ Box 1967, pp. 54–69.
  4. ^ Whigham 2002, pp. 94–102.
  5. ^ Box 1967, pp. 29–53.
  6. ^ Whigham 2002, pp. 77–85.

Bibliography

  • Box, Pelham Horton (1967). The Origins of the Paraguayan War. New York: Russel & Russel.
  • Cunninghame Graham, Robert Bontine (1933). Portrait of a Dictator: Francisco Solano López. London: William Heinemann Ltd.
  • Doratioto, Francisco (2003). Maldita Guerra: Nova História da Guerra do Paraguai. Companhia das Letras. ISBN 978-85-359-0224-2.
  • Hooker, Terry D. (2008). The Paraguayan War. Nottingham: Foundry Books. ISBN 978-1-901543-15-5.
  • Kraay, Hendrik; Whigham, Thomas L. (2004). I Die with My Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, 1864–1870. Dexter, Michigan: Thomson-Shore. ISBN 978-0-8032-2762-0.
  • Leuchars, Chris (2002). To the Bitter End: Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-32365-8.
  • Salles, Ricardo (2003). Guerra do Paraguai: Memórias & Imagens (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: Bibilioteca Nacional.
  • Scheina, Robert (2003). Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Caudillo, 1791–1899. Dulles, Virginia: Brassey's.
  • Whigham, Thomas L. (2002). The Paraguayan War: Causes and Early Conduct. Vol. 1. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-4786-4.
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